2024-25 PWHL Power Rankings: Week 5 (12/27-1/02)

Welcome back to The Ice Garden’s weekly power rankings! Check back every Friday for a new installment and remember: if you think your team is ranked too low, it’s definitely, totally, 100% because we hate them.

Finally, a busy week around the PWHL that gave me a lot to work with here! Six games were played this week and thanks to some impressive wins and bad losses, no team stayed in the same place for this week’s rankings. As if the six games weren't enough, there was also a blockbuster trade, but to keep this story to a reasonable length, I won't touch on it here. However, be sure to read about it here. Now, let’s get into some rankings, shall we?

I can only come up with so many new themes, so to make sure I don’t run out too quickly, it’s time to put a new spin on one from last year. If you’re new to my rankings this season, I grew up a Disney kid and the movies will always have a special place in my heart. They also happen to provide me with near-endless theme possibilities, so join me as I pick one quote (or in one case, a scene) from various Walt Disney Animation movies to summarize each PWHL team’s week.

#1. Montréal Victoire (3-2-0-1, 13 points)

Last Week's Ranking: 3 (+2)

This Week’s Results:

• Sat, Dec 28 @ MIN- 3-2 W
• Mon, Dec 30 vs BOS- 3-1 W

Upcoming Schedule:

• Sun, Jan 5 @ BOS- 4 p.m. ET, Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA (TSN, RDS, NESN, PWHL Youtube Channel, thepwhl.com)
• Wed, Jan 8  @ TOR- 10 p.m. ET, Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC (TSN, RDS, PWHL Youtube Channel, thepwhl.com)

Disney Scene: Goofy and Max dance on stage at the Powerline concert- "A Goofy Movie" (1995)

It’s not a quote, but this scene popped into my head as a good representation of the Victoire. It was a rockier start to the season than they may have liked (see: Goofy and Max causing chaos backstage), but they’ve since happily danced their way into second place in the league standings by raw points and first by points percentage. The vibes are high in Montréal.

A two-regulation-win week was exactly what the Victoire needed. That may seem like a silly thing to say when they had three wins going into it. However, two of them came in overtime, so to prove they're among the league's best, they needed to show that they could close games out in regulation and earn the full three points more often. In scary news for the rest of the PWHL, Montréal is doing all this with mostly depth scoring. Just three of their skaters have two goals, while ten others have found the back of the net once. Most notably, Marie-Philip Poulin only has two goals and one assist on the season, and one has to imagine she’ll take off at some point. When she does, the Victoire will be an even bigger problem.

#2. Minnesota Frost (3-2-1-1, 14 points)

Last Week's Ranking: 1 (-1)

This Week’s Results:

• Sat, Dec 28 vs MTL- 3-2 L
• Thu, Jan 2 vs BOS- 4-3 OTW

Upcoming Schedule:

• Sat, Jan 4 vs NYC- 1 p.m. CT, Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN (FanDuel Sports Network North, MSG, CBC, PWHL Youtube Channel, thepwhl.com)
• Wed, Jan 8 vs BOS- 6:30 p.m. CT, Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN (FanDuel Sports Network North, NESN, TSN, PWHL Youtube Channel, thepwhl.com)

Disney Quote: "The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of them all"- The Emperor of China in "Mulan" (1998)

Key injuries are piling up for the Frost, with Sophie Jaques and Dominique Petrie out long-term and missing both games this week, while Taylor Heise missed the Boston game and Grace Zumwinkle left after playing just 4:35. Maddie Rooney also missed the Boston game due to illness. That’s a ton of adversity to face, and while they lost to Montréal, they gutted out an overtime win against Boston. It may not be pretty, but if they can keep finding ways to get points through this injury-mired stretch, they’ll be even better for it once everyone is healthy again.

The Frost kicked off this week with their first regulation loss of the season but ended it with a gusty overtime win against a struggling Boston team. Considering all the adversity they’re facing, I would've been impressed if they just kept both games close, so to get a win is impressive. I’m not sure how long they can keep this up if the Heise and Zumwinkle injuries are serious but for now, they’ve earned this spot.

#3. New York Sirens (2-1-1-2, 9 points)

Last Week's Ranking: 2 (-1)

This Week’s Results:

• Sun, Dec 29 vs OTT- 3-1 L

Upcoming Schedule:

• Sat, Jan 4 @ MIN- 2 p.m. ET, Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN (MSG, FanDuel Sports Network North, CBC, PWHL Youtube Channel, thepwhl.com)
• Tue, Jan 7 vs OTT- 7 p.m. ET, Prudential Center, Newark, NJ (MSGSN2, Amazon Prime, PWHL Youtube Channel, thepwhl.com)

Disney Quote: "I'm sure Elvis had his bad days too"- Lilo in "Lilo and Stitch" (2002)

The Sirens only played one game this week and they ran into the brick wall that is Ottawa’s Emerance Maschmeyer this season. But even Stitch has bad days, so it's nothing to worry about.

New York had a light week, and it’s hard to glean too much from the loss other than they outshot Ottawa 35-22 but got goalie’d. It happens. They kick this week off against a shorthanded Minnesota team, so it’s a good opportunity for them to get back on track before a rematch with the Charge on Tuesday.

#4. Toronto Sceptres (2-0-1-4, 7 points)

Last Week's Ranking: 5 (+1)

This Week’s Results:

• Fri, Dec 27 vs BOS- 4-2 W
• Tue, Dec 31 vs OTT- 2-1 L

Upcoming Schedule:

• Wed, Jan 8 vs MTL- 10 p.m. ET, Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC (TSN, RDS, PWHL Youtube Channel, thepwhl.com)

Disney Quote: "I can't believe it. I'm losing to a rug"- Genie from "Aladdin" (1992)

Both Ottawa’s Emerance Maschmeyer and the magic carpet from Aladdin are capable of amazing feats. However, just like the Genie, Toronto was surely in disbelief when she pretty much single-handedly beat them this past week.

The Sceptres kicked off the week with a solid win over Boston before getting goalie’d by Maschmeyer. There’s simply no other way to describe losing a game where you outshot your opponent a whopping 38-13. Speaking of goaltending, Toronto’s crease has been an interesting story this season. Rookie netminder Raygan Kirk netminder took the reigns from 2024 PWHL Goaltender of the Year Kristen Campbell midway through their game on December 18 and has since started three straight games. Kirk has been playing well, but given she doesn’t have much experience as a true starter, Toronto needs Campbell to find her game so they can share the net and get the best out of each of them. In the meantime, the Sceptres will look to build on the better play they showed this week in hopes of turning their season around.

#5. Ottawa Charge (3-0-1-3, 10 points)

Last Week's Results: 6 (+1)

This Week’s Results:

• Sun, Dec 29 @ NYC- 3-1 W
• Tue, Dec 31 @ TOR- 2-1 W

Upcoming Schedule:

• Tue, Jan 7 @ NYC- 7 p.m. ET, Prudential Center, Newark, NJ (Amazon Prime, MSGSN2, PWHL Youtube Channel, thepwhl.com)

Disney Quote: From "The Emperor's New Groove" (2000)

Kuzco: "No! It's can't be! How did you get back here before us?

Yzma: "Uh, how did we, Kronk?"

Kronk: "Well, you got me. By all accounts it doesn't make sense."

Just like there’s no way Kronk and Yzma should have beaten Kuzco and Pacha back, there’s no way Ottawa should have beaten New York and Toronto this week. However, thanks to Emerance Maschmeyer playing out of her mind, that’s just what they did. Oh well (for their opponents), back to business!

Ordinarily, two regulation wins would warrant a bigger jump, especially when only one team ranked higher did that this week. However, I can't justify doing that considering how poorly Ottawa played in those wins. It’s not often that you’ll get three points after getting outshot 35-22 and 38-13. Yet, Ottawa managed to do that this week. They owe it all to the brilliance of Emerance Maschmeyer, but perhaps they should consider helping her out by spending more time in the offensive zone. Just a thought.

#6. Boston Fleet (2-0-1-4, 7 points)

Last Week's Ranking: 4 (-2)

This Week’s Results:

• Fri, Dec 27 @ TOR- 4-2 L
• Mon, Dec 30 @ MTL- 3-1 L
• Thu, Jan 2 @ MIN- 4-3 OTL

Upcoming Schedule:

• Sun, Jan 5 vs MTL- 4 p.m. ET, Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA (NESN, TSN, RDS, PWHL Youtube Channel, thepwhl.com)
• Wed, Jan 8 @ MIN- 7:30 p.m. CT, Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN (NESN, FanDuel Sports Network North, TSN, PWHL Youtube Channel, thepwhl.com)

Disney Scene: This whole scene from “Hercules” (1997), but especially the “will you forget the head-slicing thing?” quote from Phil.

The Fleet’s season feels a lot like this scene. They got their butts kicked for the first two games but turned it around for two wins that had people thinking maybe they’d be fine. However, now they’re back to getting their butts kicked, yet they insist on doing the same thing over and over again. They need to change things up or it's only going to get worse.

This was not a good week for the Fleet, to put it lightly. They were the busiest team in the league, playing three road games, but they managed just one point. They now sit tied for fifth in points with the Sceptres, who currently hold the tiebreaker. They showed some fight against Minnesota by rallying for three goals in the third period to force overtime, but with all of the Frost’s injuries, that was a game they should’ve won. Instead, they’re left searching for answers. The Fleet must start turning things around before the end of this road trip, or they’ll find themselves in an even deeper hole that won’t be fun to try to climb out of.